Festivals“Samcheok Jeongwol Daeboreum Festival”: Koreans celebrate the first full moon day of the Lunar New Year to bring health and good luck to their families. The traditional event, celebrating the beginning of the Lunar New Year, will be held in Samcheok, Gangwon Province, from Feb. 22-24. Visitors can experience various folk games, including a tug-of-war, burning a bundle of twigs and other fun activities such as arm wrestling and a singing contest. The festival will take place at Expo Town

LONDON (AP) ― The art world loves hype. Works are touted as the biggest, the rarest, the most expensive. Even in an age of superlatives, the British Museum has something special ― the oldest known figurative art in the world.The artworks on display in the new exhibition “Ice Age Art’’ are so old that many are carved from the tusks of woolly mammoths.But it’s not just their age that may surprise visitors. It’s their artistry.These are artworks, not just prehistoric artifacts. Some of the sophisti

From guided tours to traditional and trendy spots in Seoul to a lucky draw event, Korea is readying for the arrival of more than 60,000 Chinese tourists during China’s week-long holidays starting this weekend. Expecting the number of Chinese visitors to increase by about 25 percent from the previous holidays, the state-run Korea Tourism Organization has been preparing events for the large influx of tourists. It is holding a welcoming event at the Incheon International Airport, providing welcomin

The South Korean Air Force’s parody of the blockbuster musical film “Les Miserables” has gone viral online, detailing the struggles of conscripted men serving their mandatory military service separated from their loved ones.A day after the Air Force’s media team posted the video on Youtube, the parody “Les Militaribles” has garnered more than 423,000 views as of midday Thursday, creating buzz on social networking sites around the world.The 13-minute video opens with rank and file soldiers in com

FAIRFIELD, Connecticut (AP) ― John and Ann Betar weren’t supposed to get married. Her father had arranged for her to wed another man, but she and John fled Bridgeport and eloped in New York.That was more than 80 years ago. The couple is still happily hitched, a fact that has led to their naming as the “longest married couple” in the U.S. for 2013 by Worldwide Marriage Encounter, a Christian marriage group based in San Bernardino, California. The Betars are scheduled to receive a plaque and other

South Korean PGA Tour veteran Choi Kyung-ju on Thursday was named a recipient of an award for his extensive charity work off the field.The Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA) said Choi, affectionately called K.J. Choi outside of Korea, is the 2013 winner of its Charlie Bartlett Award. Named after the first secretary of the GWAA, the award recognizes professional golfers for their “contributions to the betterment of society.” Choi, 42, was acknowledged for his support for relief efforts an

A Vital Signs report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted in collaboration with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found U.S. adults with some form of mental illness have a smoking rate 70 percent higher than adults with no mental illness.The report also found 36 percent of adults with a mental illness were cigarette smokers, compared with 21 percent of adults who do not have a mental illness.Earlier research showed nearly 1-in-5 U.S. adults -- a

A bibimbap video advertisement was screened on Thailand’s most high profile billboard, after a joint effort by a Korean comedy show and publicist.Korea’s weekly comedy show “Infinite Challenge” and Seo Kyung-duk, a professor at Sungshin Women’s University, teamed up for a world tour to put out billboard ads of bibimbap, a Korean traditional dish made of steamed rice mixed with meat, fresh vegetables and red pepper paste. Seo has placed bibimbap ads in Times Square in New York and the New York Ti

A Seowon was not simply a building of academia or a shrine. It was a living organization with abundant tales, said Lee Bae-yong, head of the preparation committee for the institute’s addition to the UNESCO World Heritage list. “At Sosu Seowon, the first seowon established here, all pine trees behind the walls lean toward the classrooms. It is almost as if the trees wanted to share the knowledge of the wise men,” she said in an interview with The Korea Herald held at the Cooperation and Participa

UNESCO World Heritage candidate has time-transcending serenity, peace

Korean men more than ever are braving the makeup aisle for themselves, leading to a boom in the retail market for men’s cosmetics and skin care products. “Flower men” are in right now, encouraging men to groom themselves. The term “flower men” refers to good-looking K-pop stars with feminine features. Many men have adapted to the popular clich, “appearance is power.” Indeed streets are lined with makeup boutiques featuring handsome male celebrities posing as models with phrases like, “For men, t

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) ― As a Hindu who does not eat beef but craves other meat, Tashny Sukumaran discovered her new passion for pork burgers through her native Malaysia’s vibrant food-blogging, or “flogging,” scene.The Muslim-majority country’s mainstream media shy from references to pork and other foods objectionable to Islam, but blogs have helped spark a burger boom in a nation with sizeable ethnic Chinese and Indian communities.“I kept reading about pork burgers on ‘flogs’ but have never seen m